The Gambling Man In The White Suit
by crazysychoninja
Summary: Nick has been arrested, for possession of a firearm and violating a restraining order. For that, he's being sent back to jail, and this time, he isn't getting out. Nick's life is over. Or so he thinks. It seems the impending apocalypse has different plans for him. I'm going to change certain elements from the game, but nothing too major. Rating M just to be safe.


**Hello! Shadow of a Doubt here. I'm going to be uploading these chapters as consistently as possible, but I won't make any promises. I'm going to continue to write First and Last Defense and Dreams of Sustained Cruelty, but I've been having writer's block for those. I'm sorry for leaving those alone for a while. Also, I'm trying to better my writing, so if you see something you don't like, love, or have a suggestion for the plot, review it! I love getting feedback. It makes it better for you and me! So enjoy, and take care everybody!**

Chapter 1: Heading Home

"Goddammit." I feel Sergeant Raymond click the handcuffs around my wrists He reaches into my nice white jacket.

"Where's that revolver, Nick? Oh, wait. Let me guess. You don't know what I'm talking about, right?"

"You took the words right out of my mouth." I traveled down to this shithole of a city, to see Maggie. To be honest, I miss her. Maybe I can never get back what I lost when I broke her heart, but I would like to still have her around. I screwed up, and I wanted to apologize. But I guess that while I was in prison, my ex-wife filed a restraining order, and my asshole lawyer never bothered to tell me. Add that to the fact that I purchased a revolver, and I'm gonna get sent back. With the people I've pissed off, I'm thinking that maybe having a gun would be helpful. And now that I'm going back to prison, I have a feeling I won't be leaving, unless it's in a coffin.

"For real man? You're barely out of prison, and I'm taking you back?"

"What do you have on me, Ray?"

"I've got you purchasing a revolver. You can't own a gun. Also, you violated the restraining order. You're going back, buddy. Watch your head." He pushed my head down into the back of the squad car. I sit in the middle of the backseat, and he gets in. He turns on the car, and begins to drive. Ray looks at me through the rearview mirror.

"What happened to you man?" The question takes me off guard for a second.

"What?"

"What happened to the kid I grew up with? The one who played all the dumbass pranks on people? What happened to him?"

"He still plays pranks on people. Only he gets rich off them now."

"Come on, man. I thought you were going to change."

"I just came down to tell her I'm sorry."

"What about that gun?"

"I would never hurt her! You know that. There are just some people who I wouldn't feel comfortable talking to without a gun."

"That's what happens when you piss off the wrong people." Raymond turned back and started driving. I'm in the backseat of this car, contemplating what's going to happen to me. I'm screwed. When I go back behind bars, I'm going to be killed. This is my last time on the outside. One idea pops into my head.

"Ray. Can you pull up over here?"

"Why the hell would I do that?"

"I'm never leaving prison. This is my last beer." Ray looks at his watch, and sighs.

"Nick, I swear to God, you try anything…"

"I promise I won't. Please. For old times sake." Raymond stops the car, and opens his door. He's shaking his head as opens my door. In front of us is a bar. If I'm going to die, I want to have a last beer. Raymond reaches over and takes off the handcuffs.

"Don't try anything."

"You got my word."

"One drink."

"One drink, Ray." An hour and a half later, we're laughing our asses off about school and all the shit we did and the pranks we pulled. I've lost count of how many beers I've had, while Ray states that he is on duty.

"Remember Ray, when we took Ms. Snyder's car, and filled it with mulch, and then left it in the parking lot? And when she opened the door, it all came out everywhere?"

"Yeah, and when Mr. Hayes asked us what our reason was for doing it?"

"Well, sir, she said she needed help gardening." We start laughing more, and it's gotten to the point where it hurts to laugh.

"Oh man. We were model students back then.

"What the hell are you talking about? Model students my ass! We were in Mr. Hayes' office so often that he had two desks with our names labeled on the front!"

"That intercom. Mr. Santori, Mr. Carson, please report to my office immediately."

"Those were good times." I sigh and take a drink. Ray looks at his watch, and I know what he's going to say.

"It's time." I nod, and I get up. We walk out of the bar, and I feel Ray grab my arm. He clicks the handcuffs around my left hand.

"Seriously man? Do you have to do that?"

"Nick, you know I have to…" At that moment, we both heard something in the alleyway. Ray clips the other end to the door handle. He pulls out his flashlight and walks forward.

"Hello? Anyone there?" He shines the light around. There is a man crouched at the other end of the alley. He had a hoodie on, and he was picking through a large trashbag.

"Sir? I'm a police officer. Can you tell me what you are doing?" Ray shines the light at the man, who turns around with flesh in his mouth. His hands are covered in blood, and the large trashbag is a person's body. He's been eating this person.

"Oh shit…" Ray reaches for his gun, and the monster screeches. It runs and leaps through the air, covering an insane distance with one single jump. Before Ray can shoot it, it tackles him and begins tearing open my best friend's stomach.

"Ray!" I begin to tug at the handcuffs trying to break them. I kick the door handle until it breaks off, and I rush to Ray. I grab his gun that was nearby and shoot the monster on top of him. It falls over dead, and I kneel near my friend. I hold him up, and he has blooding gushing from his body.

"Somebody call 911! A cop's been hurt! Help! Please! Somebody! I look back at my friend who slowly opens his eyes.

"Nick? Wasn't...there...a car...attached to you?" He bitterly laughs, and coughs up blood.

"Hey Ray, just stay with me. Help is coming. Alright? Just stay with me. Somebody! Help me please!" I look back at Ray, and I see he's gone.

"Ray? Come on man. Stop playing around. Wake up. Please." I feel tears leave my eyes. I just lost my best friend.

"Sir. Put the officer down, and put your hands on your head." I turn around and see another officer standing by Ray's car. He's pointing his gun at me, and I realize he thinks I killed my best friend.

"I didn't do it. I swear. I didn't kill him. That man did!" I turn and point at the body, but it's not there anymore. Where did it go? The police officer aims directly at me.

"Sir! On the ground now! You are under arrest for the murder of a police officer! Get on the ground now and put your hands on your head!" I hear a screech again, and this time, there are other noises accompanying it. I can see in the shadow of the alleyway things running forward. I decide that I can probably get past the cop before he shoots me. I stand up and run as fast as I can. The cop doesn't shoot at me, because he has to fire at the crowd behind me. I look back and watch as he gets over run. Most of them don't see me though, and I decided that hiding up the car would be the best course of action. I crawl under, and they all go running past the car. I'm laying on my back. I've never been religious; religion is the world's best con, but in that moment, I begin praying to whoever the hell is up in the sky, asking that they don't check under the car. I'm just repeating, please don't see me. Please don't see me. Please don't see me. Please don't see…

I wake up, still under the car, but there is the smell of smoke and flames around me. I can hear screaming, gunshots, and other pieces of noises that belong to those monsters. I look around, and there doesn't seem to be anything around me. It's still night out, but the sun has to come up soon. I crawl out from the car, and find the cops remains at the entry of the alleyway. I grab his gun and check how much ammo it has in it. I check his pockets and find some magazines for his gun. I put them in my pockets, and then walk to Ray. He's in multiple pieces and it's disgusting. But I check his pockets for the handcuff keys. I find them, and take off my handcuffs. I go to throw them aside, but I think twice. They might come in handy. I hear some growling, and look around. I don't know where it's coming from, but I know the pouncing bastard from earlier is around. I stand up slowly, and I walk down the alleyway. I hear it roar, and I instinctively duck. It flies overhead, and turns around once it's landed. It pounces again, and lands on me. It tries to bite me, but I'm able to keep it back with my arm. It's really strong, but I'm able to hold it off. It grabs my arm, and bites through my shirt. It rips it's head back, and takes some flesh with it.

"Shit!" This is it. I'm going to die. I can't fight it off with one arm. I'm sorry, Maggie. Something clicks inside me. No! I refuse to die here! Not like this! I grab it's head and throw it aside. It falls off me, and tries to get up. I pull out the gun and shoot it in the leg. It falls over and tries to crawl away. I jump up and walk over to it. I flip it over, and look it in the eye. I begin punching it in the face. It's trying to fight me off, but it can't. I stand up, and kick it in the ribs.

"I'll die, when I'm ready." I bring my foot down on it's face, and feel it give way as my foot comes down. I wipe my foot off on it's hoodie, and walk to the police car. I break the window, and grab my jacket from inside. I take the first aid kit and patch up my arm. It hurts like hell, but I can still use it. I look around, and realize that I'm only a few blocks away from Maggie's apartment building. I put on my jacket, and walk to the street. There are bodies everywhere, and some of them are still moving. I take aim, and begin putting them down. It takes me about twenty minutes to reach Maggie's apartment building. There's smoke coming from it. I walk through the lobby, and begin walking up the stairs to the seventh floor. I begin walking up to the seventh floor, and the building shakes. I feel the stairs give way.

"Shit!" I jump back and grab the railing. The stairs fall away, and I'm hanging. It hurts like hell to hold on, so I force myself to get onto the landing. I climb back onto the stairwell landing. I have to go through the sixth floor to get to the other staircase. I don't have my gun anymore. I dropped it down the staircase. I look around, and don't see anything around. I stand up, and open the stairwell door. The fire isn't as bad up here. But there are a few of those creatures on the floor. One of them has a light green rubber HAZMAT suit. Guess those don't stop bites. He sees me, and begins to run straight toward me. I don't have anything to stop him. I run forward, and tackle the creature before he gets to me. I stand up and run down the hallway, trying to avoid the creatures while at the same time get through to the other side. All these hallways look the same, but I can't find my way out. There are about three more zombies following me, and I can't find anything to use. I see an apartment door wide open, and I run in. I kick the door shut before any of them can get inside. I look around, and see a creature chewing on some poor guy's body. On the ground behind her, is a body. With a fire axe stuck in it's skull. I reach over and pull the weapon out of the body. The creature turns around and sees me. She screeches and comes to get me, but after a swing of my axe, she's down on the ground. I turn around and see the creatures outside have dented the door a bit. I walk over, and open it. The doorway is small enough for them to come at me one at a time. I kill one of them and kick the HAZMAT one back into the hallway. The third one I kill with the axe, and the fourth is down in a few seconds as well. The HAZMAT one charges me, and I grab him and throw him through the balcony door. Before he can do anything, I shove him as hard as I can, and he falls the six floors to the ground. I grab the axe and continue my journey through the building.

I finally make it to the eighth floor. It's so damn tiring to get up all these flights of stairs. I miss elevators. I walk around the floor, looking for the apartment. I don't care what other people think, I still kinda love her. Even if I didn't, I wouldn't leave her to die. I find her apartment, and begin banging on the door.

"Maggie! Maggie! It's Nick! Open the door! Are you okay?! Maggie!"

She doesn't answer me. The next apartment over is open. I walk through it, and get to the balcony. The balconies are only separated by a eight foot wall of concrete. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. Hurry up and do it before you puss out. I toss the axe to the next balcony, and then jump. I hit the railing, but I'm on. I didn't fall to my death. I pick up the axe.

"Maggie? You in here?" I head to her bedroom. That's where I find her. Dead, on the floor, blood stains on her shirt and in her light blonde hair, cold and gray. I feel the tears begin to take shape in my eyes.

"No, please no! GOD-FUCKING-DAMMIT!" I rush out of the room, and punch a mirror in the kitchen. I'm crying so much, even though I don't know where I'm getting it from. First Ray, now Maggie. I look at my broken reflection, and see the toll the day has taken on me. I'm crying, disheveled, bloody, and tired. So tired that I swear I'm seeing things. In my reflection, I have some blonde highlights. I turn around just in time as Maggie grabs me, and tries to take a chunk of flesh out of my shoulder. She slams me against the refrigerator. I hit the ground and she's on top of me. She's trying to bite me, and I'm able to keep her off. Suddenly, she digs her hand into my side. My arms drop a little, and she's able to bite my neck. I grab her head, and tear her off of me. I'm not bleeding that much, but I need to focus on this. She runs at me again, and grabs me again. We stumble around, and I trip over the axe. I fall through the glass door of the balcony. Before she can bite me, I push her off. I stand up and when she runs at me again, I just kick her as hard as I can. She hits the railing and I grab her before she can get up. I begin to hit her, and each hit began to get more powerful. All the emotion from the night before, and now, is pouring out. I hit her, and I feel something break. She falls to the ground, and I stumble backward. Her jaw is broken, and she's struggling to stand up. Deja vu hits me as I remember a similar scene four years ago. She quickly gets up, and tackles me before I can do anything. We're rolling around on the balcony, and I'm able to push her off of me. She hits the railing, and it finally collapses. I jump forward before I can stop myself.

"No!" I catch her arm, and we're both dangling. She's trying to grab me with her other arm, and therefore, pulling me farther over the edge. My grip is slipping, and I'm sliding forward. I make an unconscious decision to let her go. Physically, not emotionally. She falls off the balcony, down the eight stories. She falls directly on her back, and even though I'm eight stories up, I hear that crack as if she was next to me. Bodies never act the way you would expect. I've only watched two people fall to their deaths, and both times, I didn't care for them, and I was the one who pushed them. This time though, it's worse. She slowly falls feet first through the skylight and hits the ground. I can see that she fell apart when she hit the lobby floor. There is some blood on the support beam, as well as some entrails. I crawl back into the kitchen and lean against the refrigerator. The sun had come up over the burning city, and I'm so exhausted. I'm still seeing and hearing things.

"This way! The evac is on the roof!" I turn and look out the apartment door. A black woman with a pink shirt runs past, with a larger black man in a purple sweater. A white man in a beige shirt and overalls tied around his waist. I stumble up and go to the door. The three people had gone into the stairway, and are heading to the roof. I follow the sounds of their voices to the roof.

"Who the hell puts an evac station up thirty flights of godman stairs?" That sounds like the black man, but I can't be sure because they are a floor above me. I'm so tired from the night of fighting for my life, that going up two flights of stairs seems like the greatest challenge in the world. When I get to the top, I lean against the doorway and watch as the helicopters fly directly overhead. But oddly enough, they aren't stopping. They just keep flying, ignoring this group of people, stranded on the roof of an eleven story apartment building that being engulfed in flames.

"Where is everybody? Hello?"

"This isn't happening. This isn't happening."

"Anyone here?"

"We're still here!" The black man looked at his two friends.

"Aren't they supposed to be saving our asses?" They all turn and look at me when they see me, out of breath and leaning against the doorway. All they see, is a man who has blood on a nice expensive white suit, who is out of breath from running up stairs. But they don't see the tired, scared, and devastated man who is in front of them. All I let them see is the cool, calm, and collected Nick.

"Looks like there's been a change in plans."

**So, I hope everyone liked it. I enjoy writing these stories, and I enjoy hearing about how much you like, dislike, or want to add something, so review so I can help make it better. Be sure to check out my other stories as well guys! I'll try to upload the next chapter soon!**


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